Understanding
by plusTHREE
Summary: Detective Takenouchi Sora already has her hands full with work. Now she's got to deal with an annoying new goggle-wearing playboy partner. And what about this blonde yakuza, who she just can't seem to figure out? AU. DAIORA/SOKERU, alternate endings


Author's Note: Yes, if that "this is really familiar" thought is tugging at your head, that's because this has been here before under the same title. I happened to be surfing and came across my old works. This was one of the stories that I wished I finished, because I just loved the initial idea of it. However, my puny 15 year old brain didn't comprehend the complexity of the plot or the characters, so it was just kind of abandoned.

This is going to be a complete re-write with the same concept and some major tweaking. If my 15 year old self couldn't have finished this story, maybe my 20 year old self can.

Ages have been bumped up from the original story. The setting takes place in a fictional city in Japan, five hours north of Odaiba. This is obviously an AU with lots and lots of drama (x

It was like all evil was concentrated in one place.

Sora Takenouchi was a twenty-seven year old living in one of the most crime-ridden areas in Japan…the city of Obuki. The area was almost a separate entity compared to the rest of the country. Many citizens treated the place with a snotty indifference, ashamed of it's existence but fully acknowledgeable regardless. No matter what, you could not deny Obuki's appeal. Promises of fast cars, fast women, and fast money on top of cheap living conditions and abundant, easily acquired jobs brought in a constant flow of the desperate and the greedy. Of course, that sort of combination meant all sorts of trouble, even for a woman as street-smart as Sora.

She reminisced on her initial arrival to Obuki. Fresh out of college with a bachelor's degree in Criminal Justice, the then twenty-one year old had faced rejection time and time again when she applied for any police academy within the local area of her hometown. Even though she graduated summa cum laude from the University of Odaiba, the education was irrelevant when you factored in gender.

So, she picked up and traveled, somehow finding her way to this city. They had welcomed her almost instantaneously, as Obuki severely lacked any sort of competent police force.

Sora climbed through the ranks rather quickly, moving from ticketing illegally parked cars to now being one of the brightest Detective minds in Squad 10.

Squad 10 was a unit that was an inside joke to all law enforcement in Obuki. They had called it the 'crazy unit' because well… that was what they had to deal with. Rapists, pedophiles, necrophiliacs, and all sorts of sexual deviants were sent to Squad 10. Uncommon were the times when a case was so twisted that it had an effect on one of the Detectives… so Sora had no clue what was to come when she was partnered with Uryuu Andrew.

'_You will be mine, Takenouchi Sora…I promise you…you will be mine…' _was the simple statement uttered before he was led away in handcuffs.

She watched as her partner-no, ex-partner, walked away from the interrogation room with the same smile he gave to her the night he almost took her. There were bruise marks on the female's arms when she put them up in defense. He had grabbed her wrists in an attempt to pin her against the wall, but she was stronger than she looked, managing to push him back and keep him from claiming her mouth.

Subconsciously, Sora touched her lips with the tips her fingers. Remembering the look in his manic eyes as he professed his undying love for her after three years of partnership was enough to make goosebumps trail across her flesh. He was a burly man that hovered a foot over her small stature and dominated in terms of raw power, but lacked the speed and agility that she possessed. They matched when it came to wit, having worked through dozens of cases proficiently, but he always made the mistake of underestimating her strength.

That led to his downfall.

"_Andrew…no, baby, please don't do this," she pleaded, her head turned to the side to avoid contact with his lips. Yet her eyes never left the desperate look of his. _

_His eyebrows furrowed in response to the word 'baby'. She had never once called him by that name. Was she now feeling the same way he was?, he wondered, grip loosening. _

"_I love you," Sora managed to say again, "please let me go. I promise I won't tell anyone…besides…besides, what good is me being pinned like this? I can't do anything for you, you know." The woman finished again, her tone dropping lower, huskier. At that point her head had turned fully to look at him, auburn eyes widened with a look of certainty and longing. _

_At least that's what he thought. _

_Andrew Uryuu had been taken aback again, not knowing where the sudden compliance came from after she had been fighting to get away the entire night. Was it a trick? No, it couldn't have been a trick. The three years he had known Sora Takenouchi, she had never said the word 'love' to anyone. Her expression did not betray her words. He saw the same passion in her eyes match the fire burning within his body. _

"_It's much better when my hands are free…I promise," she said, licking her lips. He could not resist her. He complied with her wishes. _

_And the moment he let go, his dreams of a happy life with the woman he adored were shattered. _

_Andrew had no idea when and where Sora had picked up capoeira skills, but she had apparently studied enough of it to be proficient enough to take him down. In a blink of an eye she disappeared from his sight, dropping to the floor. In one swift, fluid movement, she had hooked her leg around his and jerked it forward with enough force to have him lose stature and topple to the ground. She quickly rolled away from him before he could fall over her and quickly got to her feet. _

"_Bitch!" he cursed, arm reflexively shooting out to grab at her leg. He managed to catch her by a millisecond. _

_Sora had let out a yelp as she had once again met with the floor, her hands placed in front of her to cushion the impact. But before he could do anything else, she had whipped her head towards him, making sure that he would directly receive the full force of the kick that was coming to his head. _

"_I will-" he could not even finish his statement as the blow to the side of his head, blacking everything out. Once he regained composure, he was in the hospital with a slight brain contusion and the lieutenant of the squad standing over him with paperwork. He did not look amused. _

"_Your ass is grass, Uryuu."_

_Andrew's eyes cast onto the bed. The Lieutenant rarely had that kind of look in his eyes. "Damn.." was the only thing he managed to mutter. _

"Is this really appropriate timing?" Detective Takenouchi mused loudly, arousing the attention of the somewhat dozing policeman sitting on the chair next to her. They sat outside of the Lieutenant Yao's office for a while, awaiting the arrival of her new partner.

The policeman shrugged. "It's been three months Take-san," he pointed out, earning a somewhat surprised look.

"I guess it has been, huh," she replied, growing silent. After a few minutes of thinking she opened her mouth to say something else, but was interrupted as she saw the Lieutenant enter the room, steel toe boots clicking across the ground as he walked.

Behind him trailed a rather handsome, grinning man. Several had stopped what they were doing to look up at the newcomer, eyes widened in fascination as they took in his appearance. He was a bit taller than most Japanese men, standing at about 6'2", with spikey brown hair and slightly tanned skin. On his upper torso was a plain gray t-shirt. It wasn't tight, but you could see the definition of his body if he moved a certain way. He also wore a pair of dark-washed blue jeans that fit just as well as the shirt.

He was extremely good-looking, and that was obvious from the stares he got; but he was also very much out of place.

Sora's reaction to the entrance was a little different from the rest. She stared as much as everyone else did, but for other reasons. Some of the workers giggled and started whispering to each other, while she merely guffaw'ed in disbelief. Her gut suddenly felt heavy and she had a horrible thought nagging the back of her mind.

"Oy! Chi-Chi," the lieutenant called out. Sora's nickname was one that she had accepted a long time ago when the lieutenant first told her that he had trouble remembering long Japanese names, being of Chinese descent. 'Chi-Chi' was derived from the end of Takenouchi, and although it wasn't the most flattering of nicknames, it was much better than what some people got stuck with. Officer Fukunaga was dubbed 'Fukken Nugget' and Officer Kimayawasa got 'Shithead', for example. Point is, Sora's nickname was not as bad as it could've been.

"Chi-Chi!" Lieutenant Yao said even louder, making the Detective reflexively stand up from her seat. She stopped herself from cringing as he made his way towards her, obviously ignoring the chattering of the women behind him… while his companion wasn't, making eye contact with several of the females and throwing them an ever-so-charming grin.

"Mornin', Chi-Chi," the Lt greeted calmly, a smile on his face as he stopped in front of her, the handsome man following behind. He stopped walking and turned his head to look at Sora, the charm wearing off instantaneously. The look in his eyes even hardened, as if he didn't want to look at her the same way he looked at the other women.

Detective Takenouchi, ever so attentive, couldn't help but notice the slight shift in his premise.

"Hi, L.T.," Sora greeted, suddenly feeling uncomfortable. There was something about how he seemed totally different now as to when he walked in that made her all of a sudden self-conscious, and she couldn't help but think that there was probably a lot more to him than she would've ever guessed.

"I'm pretty sure you can already tell what's comin'," Lieutenant Yao said happily, motioning to the brunette man with a tilt of his head. "Meet yer new partner."

In response, the man smirked. "Yo." He looked at Lt. Yao, "Is she _normally_ all stares like this when she meets someone, or is she that rude?"

Sora's discomfort vaporized into thin air when she saw how his casanova demeanor arbitrarily returned. "Hello," the red-head said loudly, interrupting any sort of answer that the Lt. was going to give. "No, I'm normally not all stares; I'm just basking in the thought of working with someone so cocky. I am getting the chills just thinking about it," she added, smiling, the sugar in her voice so sweet it stung.

The brunette raised his eyebrow, not expecting that sort of response. Yet he was not to be outdone. "Well sweetheart, don't get too big of a chill, my _girlfriend_ wouldn't _appreciate_ it if my partner had the hots for me, ne?"

She almost laughed. "Oh tell your _girlfriend _that she won't have to worry about that. I only _appreciate _men who's brains haven't been destroyed by five pounds of hair gel. Or are you _normally_ this dense?"

His other eyebrow shot up, about to come back with something else when the Lieutenant stepped between them. By now the entire room seemed to have stalled to observe the interaction happening before them.

Yao felt the need to put them in separate corners, much like you would do to bickering Kindergarten children. "Takenouchi, be nice. He is one of the most promising Detectives that Obuki has to offer."

She scowled. 'Most promising' was the cover up word for 'newbie' and now that she thought about it, why the hell did he single her out and not that smug bastard? Nevertheless, she quickly regained her composure, wiping the scowl from her face as she gave a half hearted wave. "Pleased to meet you. My name is Takenouchi Sora."

Her new partner seemed to think over her words, although she didn't know what it was he could be thinking about when all she did was tell him her name. He seemed to consider his words, and when he figured out what to say, all attitude was once again diminished and he smirked once more.

"Motomiya Daisuke. Nice running into you again, Sora."


End file.
